474 October Verses for Little Folks EMMA C. LOEHLE The Tree Buds Wrapped in little covers warm, Bids them leaves and blossoms bring. The Leaves Pretty leaves, red, gold and brown, The Spider's Threads The air is full of slender lines Spun among the shrubs and vines; The Chestnuts Jack Frost came quietly one night; He split the chestnut burrs so tight; The little nuts, all ripe and brown, Stirred by the breeze, came tumbling down. The Pumpkin Fine Jack-o'-lanterns we shall make; Thanksgiving pies mamma will bake From the pumpkins, ripe and fine, Growing on the broad-leaved vine. The Witch Hazel Blossom There is a little flower bold That lingers when the days grow cold; Its yellow ribbons wave and play Out in the air, this autumn day. A Brave Boy BERTHA E. BUSH (For Columbus Day) Columbus sailed an unknown sea, He wouldn't be frightened or turn back, Now when I go to bed at night I think, when I put out the light, Of how he sailed his little bark, Then I am brave, too, in the dark. Susie's Hallowe'en Thought BERTHA E. BUSH If I were a witch, I would fly, I would fly; And if they were kind tricks, I'd laugh out with glee, MOTION SONGS AND DRILLS Drills, Pantomimes, and Marches. The New Calisthenics. Illustrated. Royal 8vo. Boards, 50 cents. Cloth, 60 cents. Teachers will find in this book an almost endless variety of exercises. Besides the songs set to music, marches and drills of many kinds, there is the Flag Drill, the Salutatio Militaris, the Japanese Parasol Drill, the May Day and the Fancy Marches. SWEDISH SYSTEM OF EDUCATIONAL GYMNASTICS 77 Illustrations. 107 pp. Cloth. Price, 75 cents. By HARTVIG NISSEN, Instructor in Physical Training in the Public Schools of Boston, formerly Instructor of Swedish and German Gymnastics at Harvard University's Summer School. 66 RIGHT-DRESS!" A MANUAL OF SIMPLE DRILL REGULATIONS FOR SCHOOLS By FREDERICK J. REILLY. Cloth. Price, 50 cents. The Syllabus in Physical Training for the Public Schools of New York (September, 1908), says: "All marching and facing used in assemblies, dismissals, changing class-rooms, etc., shall be in accordance with the United States Army Regulations. The aim of this manual is not to seek the introduction of military drill as such in our schools, but to make use of the best features of the military drill for effective physical training. SCISSORING IN PRIMARY GRADES The article on "Scissoring in Primary Grades," found on page 449 of this issue, should be credited to Miss Julia Nadler, Principal of the Welch School, New Haven, Conn., and to Miss Tanyane, whose pupils finished the illustrations. INDIANA SCHOOL FRATERNITIES There is a law in Indiana against high school fraternities, yet the organizations. exist, in fact, if not in name, and one of them held a convention in Indianapolis last week. The members have found loopholes, such as the inclusion in their number of a few who are not students, for evading the law; and in doing this they are said to be assisted, in some instances, by the school authorities. The Indianapolis News, while the convention was in session, pointed out the obvious moral that evasion of the law in regard to the fraternities fosters a tendency to disregard all laws. This is true, and is to be deplored. The elders of some of these youth may not always set them a good example in respect for the laws of the land, but there are the laws; and are these fraternities to defy them? Such a EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING CO. society for high school boys is a school in potential crime. BOSTON NEW YORK SAN FRANCISCO CHICAGO -Springfield Republican GULLIVER'S TRAVELS AMONG LITTLE PEOPLE OF LILLIPUT GRADES III, and IV. Ruskin's King of the Golden River. Grimm's Household Tales. Sewell's Black Beauty. Mulock's Little Lame Prince. Swift's Gulliver Among the Little People of Lilliput. GRADES IV. and V. Ewing's Jackanapes. Brown's Rab and His Friends Swift's Gulliver Among the Giants. Paper, 15 Cents Cloth, 25 Cents EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING CO. Boston New York Chicago San Francisco 476 TALKING TOGETHER Editor's Page Address EDITOR, PRIMARY EDUCATION, 50 Bromfield Street, Boston, Mass. The "Play" in School Whether the plans of the Educational Playhouse Association of New York are realized or not, the drama, in some form or other, has come to have a recognized place in every room, especially in every primary school-room. In making use, however, of this instinct to act, which seems to be inherent in every child, the teacher should be on her guard against certain dangers. In the heart of every child is the desire to be "somebody." It is a healthy desire and often, at least in poorer localities, seems little likely to be realized if not in school. Now the school play, while offering a natural outlet to this instinct, is in danger of offering it most freely to the strong and self assertive, those who need it least. The moment the teacher finds that her little dramas are emphasizing artificialty and "acting," not naturalness, that the actors are becoming self-conscious and thinking of their audience rather than of their part, she should change the parts or the play or turn to some other kind of work. Her aim should be to draw out and encourage the timid child and to repress, if necessary, the too assertive. This is an easier task in the lower grades than in the upper ones, but, as in all other kinds of work, tact and vigilance are required on the teacher's part, and a very definite consciousness of the results that she wishes to secure by the means. What We Might Learn from German Schools In a very interesting paper on "What We Might Learn from German Schools," Mr. Edward Spaulhroofd discusses several matters that have especial significance for American school teachers. He says: "Our arrangement of making a preparation period precede, if possible, every recitation, would not appear to a German educator the ideal one from a pedagogical point of view. A lesson learned for only an hour cannot stick in a boy's mind as long as one learned the night before and then given a cursory review just before the recitation. We forget, besides, that the preparation plus the recitation period constitutes too long a time for a youthful mind to devote to one subject and wonder that a boy comes to class with flagging interest, irresponsive at the beginning and absolutely listless at the end of the hour. And, finally, supposing a boy does not need the whole period for his preparation, does he review his lesson or study some other subject? Very rarely, I should think; generally he will consider the time thus gained as his own and fritter it away in idleness. And so the preparation period, besides being unpedagogical, will also prove very uneconomical of the boy's time and detrimental to his habits of industry. "The schedules of German schools are arranged with a view to changing more rapidly from one subject to another, thus providing for that variety which the youthful mind craves, and also on the principle that the harder subjects, such as mathematics and grammar, which require more concentrated attention, are put at the earlier hours of the day when the mind is fresh, to be followed by history, the reading of Latin, French, or English authors, and, finally, at the end of the schoolday by the wholly technical subjects, such as drawing, singing, and gymnastics. "The aim of the German teacher is also to teach as much as possible in class, especially in the lower forms, and to reduce as much as possible all outside work. He is assisted in this by a class-room well equipped with desks in which the boys can keep all their schoolbooks together with writing. material, so that they can be set to do written work at any time under proper conditions. It is true that there are not as many blackboards as in an American class-room; but the German teacher prefers to appeal to the ear rather than to the eye, to the head rather than to the fingers. "In this connection I cannot refrain from speaking of the German readers. I wish some one would make a thorough study of the German reader. I have only time to mention a few points. The most famous reader, the one that led the way, was Philip Whackernagel's, which forty years ago was used in practically all German schools. It was in three parts, for the lower, middle, and higher classes respectively. Now they have been so enlarged (but always on his lines) that they are published in six parts, one for Sexta, Quinta, and so through all the six classes of the higher schools. They are generally edited by one head editor in collaboration with a number of experienced schoolmen. They contain, besides poetry and literature, extracts from all sorts of writers, historical, biographical, mythological, legendary, from works on botany, zoology, astronomy and all other sciences, extracts that are apt to illuminate subjects treated in school and extracts that introduce subjects that cannot find a place anywhere else in the school curriculum. The teacher is supposed to be suffiriently conversant with all subjects treated to explain them, of study to which they are related. These readers, you see, to enlarge on them, and to connect them with any other branch are meant to give unity to a boy's mental acquisitions, and also to make him feel that as all knowledge comes to him through his mother tongue, so its knowledge, use, and mastery are the aim of all the other studies that he pursues. 'The Vernacular' is the center of all instruction." An Old Controversy The old controversy regarding the place of fairy tales in education is as rife to-day as ever. Indeed, it is never likely to be settled as long as human nature remains what it is. But granting all the arguments of their opponents, which are too familiar to need repeating, have we found anything else that will satisfy the child's craving for hero-worship, or that will invest the facts of life with the emotional glamor that makes the world of the fairy tale so wonderful? Nature stories will not do it even when we take quite illegitimate liberties with the facts; stories of great men and women will not do it - they talk and walk as we do, wear the same kind of clothes and are subject to the same frailties; we must admit that it is difficult even for a grownup to feel much emotional thrill in contemplating the lives of many of our great and successful men. Unfortunately, we cannot train a child's mind without also feeding his emotions and his imagination; at least if we do not we are exposing him to worse dangers than fairy tales. If, then, the fairy tale is what the child needs and craves, why fight against it? After all, Dick Whittington and Aladdin and Peter Pan are delightful companions, and if they live in an unreal world, it is also an unsophisticated world where motives are simple, and right and wrong are usually plainly labelled. If there is any agency that will counteract the sophisticating and vulgarizing influences to which American children are peculiarly exposed, let us not withhold it from them. THE WESTERN PACIFIC RAILWAY Your attention is particularly directed to the route of the new Western Pacific Railway, the Pacific Coast extension of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, from Salt Lake City on to San Francisco. The new line is 921 miles long and has been in course of construction since September, 1905. The work was carried on actively from both Salt Lake and San Francisco ends, and the rails were connected in November, 1909, since which time freight trains have been operated continuously over the new line in order to prepare the roadbed for passenger train service. 477 Price, 30 cents per set 10 Morning glory Conventionalized flower Stencilling offers many opportunities for the application of design in decoration of textiles for use in the school and home. It is also one of the most fascinating forms of applied design, and may be used for decorating covers, doilies, curtains, cushions, wall paper, costumes, etc. E. S. SMITH, 228 Wabash Ave., Chicago, Ill A FREE LANTERN With the completion of the line and the L. E. NORRIS, 54 Clayton St., Boston, Mass. inauguration of passenger service by the Western Pacific on Monday, August 22, 1910, Salt Lake City and San Francisco become the termini of a new and most important transcontinental line, this being the third to enter the Golden Gate City. By reason of this new and direct extension of the Rio Grande, Denver, all Colorado and Utah become nearer and more intimately connected than ever before in all social and trade relation with the Pacific Coast, and the important systems of the Burlington, Rock Island and Missouri Pacific are furnished a direct and independent outlet through the trans-montane country to the Pacific Coast. The new line is one of the most notable examples of engineering in the world, and is especially distinctive in its uniformly low grades and elimination of curvature. East or west bound, the maximum grade is I per cent or 52 feet to the mile, and in westbound movement for 80 per cent of its entire length from Salt Lake City to San Francisco the heaviest gradient to be overcome is only 4 of 1 per cent or about 20 feet to the mile. The maximum curve used is 10 degrees, and in only a few cases do the curves exceed 6 degrees. Ask Mr. S. K. Hooper, General Passenger & Ticket Agent, Denver, Colo., for a copy of the new Coast to Coast Map. It will be found useful in the school-room. Coincident with the inauguration of through passenger service on August 22, will be opened at Salt Lake City the magnificent new passenger station, recently constructed at a cost of $750,000. THE ROYAL MONTH AND THE scrofula Sudden changes of weather are especially trying, and probably to none more so than to the scrofulous and consumptive. The progress of scrofula during a normal October is commonly great. We never think of its bunches, cutaneous eruptions, and wasting of the bodily substance -without thinking of the great good many sufferers from it have derived from Hood's Sarsaparilla, whose radical and permanent cures of this one disease are enough to make" it the most famous medicine in the world. There is probably not a city or town where Hood's Sarsaparilla has not proved its merit in more homes than one, in arresting and completely eradicating scrofula, which is almost as serious and as much to be feared as its near relative consumption. The advantage of teaching the subjects of Geography, Art, History and Science, supplemented by Visual Instruction with our COLLEGE BENCH LANTERN and Equipment, are unlimited. You can take your students into the heart of Africa, Australia, the Philippines, Hawaii, anywhere-they actually see the countries they have been reading about, and studying -the peculiarities of the different countries' and the characteristics of their inhabitants. MC THE COLLEGE BENCH LANTERN The picture the child sees from the slides, associated with what he hears in the recitation, makes the facts per manent in the child's mind. OUR FREE OFFER.. During the past few years we have sold the COLLEGE BENCH LANTERN to hundreds of Primary and Grammar Schools, where it has given more than ordinary satisfaction. It has met with such approval among instructors because of its simplicity (so easy to operate), and is such an excellent supplement to ordinary instruction, that we have constructed a FREE SELLING PLAN a way for every schoolroom to possess a College Bench Lantern of its own, without spending one cent-by making the Lantern pay for itself. You do not need to be a Superin- stamp and you incur absolutely no State Town Instructor of COUPON Relaxation Written Arithmetic Written Arithmetic Spelling Drill Seat Work Seat Work Seat Work Seat Work Seat Work Seat Work Seat Work ....(Wednesday)...(Monday, Tuesday) Recess Recess Geog. (Thu. Fri.) Writing Reading Spelling Preparation. Writing Writing Reading Writing Writing Writing Writing Writing Dismissed Dismissed |